“The Usual” originated by Fran Betters
Materials :
Dry fly hook: sizes 10 to 18,
Thread: Red 140 denier,
Tail and wing: Snow shoe rabbit guard hair,
Dubbing: underfur from the same rabbit foot.
Olive dyed hare’s foot:
The tail and wing hair is derived from the fur between the toes; the dubbing is pulled from those same cut sections of fur, being the underfur, saved and wound onto the dubbing thread.
Wind the thread backward from the eye of the hook. Catch in some guard hairs for the tail of the fly. Remove the excess fur from the body and wind forward to 1/3rd down from the eye.
Catch in some more guard hair pointing towards the eye. Cut off the excess and wind back towards the hook bend, stopping at the insertion of the tail section.
Loosely dub the under fur from back to front.
Continue dubbing in front of the wing to get the wing to stand upwards. If you like you can separate the wing into two segments and hold them in place with figure eight.
Make a final head of thread. Whip finish, and apply a small amount of head cement to the thread; be careful not to use too much as it would penetrate the dubbing.
Now…… GO FISH!!
